Life With Chans | What's New Archive 2001

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December 2001
Aid the stinkin' recovery, already. And five more reviews... I'll post them at some point.

Time for style sheets? Maybe. I know it's Christmas time. Why not listen to me, as Uncle Wally, sing "Have A Little Christmas On Me" from Chas. Gilbert's musical? It's also me you hear as "Max" on this page, a great throwback to the '90s.

November 2001
Five more reviews... I think I'll hold off posting them for a while.

Well, this site is now mine. What shall I do with it?

Saw Fosse on Nov. 27. "Sparkle, Mickey! Sparkle, Judy!"

October 2001
Another fun gig Sept. 30--a bonfire at Huxter's. Too much good food. My diverticulosis is acting up.

Completed five reviews last month. I finished up my training and got a new TV. (BTW, this Keylime code is making me mad.)

It looks like my new job will only take up 60% of my time. Very strange. Where does the time go, anyway? Just last week it was hot out. Soon, we'll fall back. Great.

Boss asks me to move to another cube and lose my windows... hmmm... reminds me of "Office Space"... I might burn down the building...

I got a bunch of work to do... five more reviews in two weeks, six months of CCA minutes, projects, E464... the list never ends. And people wonder why I drink.

September 2001
Fun gig on Labor day, but back to the grind. I need a new job.

I feel my workgroup is falling apart and the boss is going on vacation. Teflon.com launch just pisses me off since the improvements have exactly the same interface problems I cite below. How can we modify a compiled Flash animation?

More Six Sigma training and administrative BS. Me no likey.

September 11, 2001. I am speechless. What images and feelings. I guess it's War, eh?

September 18, 2001. Boss asks me to step away from project management and do... some editing? OK. Maybe I can contribute something.

August 2001
RC and Dana have a beautiful baby August 7. What great news! I received five more assignments for September.

The summer was OK, I guess. The birthday was noneventful and I still have not taken one sick day all year. I met a few great girls, too, but I've not yet made it to the beach. I applied for new job just before they sent me to Six Sigma training. What overkill for a services business. Look for a new teflon.com soon.

July 2001
So I'm almost 40. Who cares?

The creaking has increased.

June 2001
Many of my colleagues were laid off late in June due to no work in the video area. It looks as if those laid off will create their own outside business. What a bummer.

DuPont.com launched with a services business section.

The new site, of course, fails to practice many of the interface design, accessibility, and compatibility and usability concepts that I think make sense... basic stuff like not mixing link colors or relying on underlining to let the visitor know where the links are... or using drop-down menus for navigation that--even though they use a combo of Javascript (ECMAscript) and CSS to deliver them--do not work in Netscape 4.7... and not even an HTML version declaration statement.

Hey, all this is very strange, my pony-tail growin', interactive agency e-designer-type dudes... you media-savvy, foosball-playin', dope-smokin', check-collectin' freaks you--it's a one-to-one medium.

Let's not let our little focus groups and the corporate retreats get in the way of clear thinking.

(I love this article that says "don't rely on what users say but what they do.")

While I like the Flash animations, because they are informative and entertaining, the editing is jerky and the distracting backgrounds are poorly done and serve mostly to provide movement: it's little better than a slide show that uses some boring stock photos and a voiceover soundtrack. But at least it's "multimedia" of some kind (and not just this kind or this kind).

Now, I am not a Jakob snob, but the site breaks a few basic rules of good information design and poorly practices some aspects of maintaining and growing a Web site (too many errors, especially in standards compliance, and apparently untested).

May 2001
No reviews to do--seems like the paper ran out of money and the regular reviewer is getting laser eye surgery. DuPont announces yet another cutback and asks four of us to volunteer to leave. Mary B. and Gerry will retire by July 30.

April 2001
Incredibly busy this month breaking budgets and missing deadlines. I did manage to write two reviews.

March 2001
Breckenridge, CO! What a great trip. I highly recommend if you like to ski. Launched Fluoroguard.com!

Two reviews to do this month. Ten-year milestone. Ten years on the same job. Unbelievable. Updated the pictures section.

I'm working up a site for my condo association...looks familiar, huh?

February 2001
Went skiing in the Poconos (Blue Mountain) for a day. My legs were very sore. DaddyBruce now wants to go to Breckenridge, CO, March 8! Three days of skiing and only one day off.

Only one review to do this month. Launched Krytox® on the 27th.

January 2001
Fish tells me there's a new Drew Weaver CD. I now have five weeks vacation. Time to travel.

Only one review to do this month.